White Chocolate, Moscow Mule & more

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   A final (pre-vacation) Clementine Paddleford NYHT roundup from 1948.  "Margarita" and "screwdriver" should be there in about 1949 or 1950.

--------------------------------------------------------
WHITE CHOCOLATE (continued)

   From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 23 July 1948, pg. 13, col. 6:

_Alice in Dairyland Visits Home Institute Kitchen_
_Hostess for the Wisconsin_
   _Exposition Delighted With_
   _White Chocolate Candies_

(PHOTO CAPTION:  Harriet Anderson introduces Alice to a white chocolate, a new idea to the girl from the West.)
(...)
   CHOCOLATE SURPRISE--White chocolates took the fancy of the McGuires.  The sisters had never ever heard of such sweets as Ellen--white chocolate-covered mints and her fine chocolate assortment done in white coats for summer.  We explained the chocolate's featured points: it doesn't melt in the heat, it can't turn gray, it's cool in the eve.
   Ellen's white chocolate assortment was one of the items in a basket of specialties by Ellen which Mrs. Jospeh P. Davies sent to the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor.  Two days after the gift was received the Duke ordered a similar basket for Queen Mary in London.  He specified what each box should contain, including the white chocolate mints.

--------------------------------------------------------
MOSCOW MULE (continued)

   From the NYHT, 28 July 1948, pg. 12, col. 6:

_Experiment With Vodka Lead to Moscow Mule_
_Line Juice, Ginger Beer and_
   _Ice Cubes Are Added to_
   _Give Potent New Drink_
   By Clementine Paddleford
   The Moscow Mule has kicked its way into town.  Two drinks are guaranteed to rehabilitate a nerve-riddled executive after a bad day in the office.  In the most unlikely places matrons are pouring mules like pink tea and giggling like co-eds.  The nicest thing about the mule is that it doesn't make you noisy and argumentative, or quiet and sullen, but congenial and in love with the world.  One wag of its tail and life grows rosy.
   TEAM WORK--The mule was born in Manhattan but "stalled" on the West Coast for the duration.  The birthplace of "Little Moscow" was in New York's Chatham Hotel.  That was back in 1941 when the first carload of Jack Morgan's Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer was railing over the plains to give New Yorkers a happy surprise.  Here was ginger beer in crockery bottles tasting exactly like that of old England.
   Three friends were in the Chatham bar, one John A. Morgan, known as Jack, president of Cock 'n' Bull Products and owner of the Hollywood Cock 'n' Bull Restaurant; one was John O. Martin, president of G. F. Heublein Brothers, Inc. of Hartford, Conn., and the third was Rudolph Kunett, president of the Pierre Smirnoff, Heublein's vodka division.  As Jack Morgan tells it, "We three were quaffing a slug, nibbling an hors d'oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius."  Martin and Kunett had their minds on their vodka and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot joined with Morgan's ginger beer and the squeeze of a lime.  Ice was ordered, limes procured, mugs ushered in and the concoction put together.  Cups were raised, the men counted five and down went the first taste.  It was good.  It lifted the spirit to adventure.  Four or five later the mixture was christened the Moscow Mule--and for a number of obvious reasons.
   ALIVE AND KICKING--Not knowing about the coming of Pearl Harbor, the friends chipped in and ordered 500 copper mugs embossed with "Little Moscows."  By this time the carload of Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer had reached Manhattan, such places as Club 21, the Waldorf Astoria, the Sherry Hetherlands, gave it an enthusiastic reception.
   Then came Tojo, and Jack Martin departed for overseas service.  Cock 'n' Bull ginger beer fought a home-staying battle with the O.P.A., the glass shortage, the national indigestion.  It survived, but only in small but important precincts in Los Angeles.
   Now again the mule is going places at a gallop--east of the Mississippi Heublein and Borthers, Inc., are skippering Cock 'n' Bull products.  Ginger beer is being bottled in a new factory in Yonkers, (Col. 7--ed.) Heubleins have the Vodka, Florida has the limes.

(Featured drinks in THIS WEEK, NYHT, 1 August 1948, pp. 26-27, are Moscow Mule, Abacaxi Ricaco, Gin 'n' Tonic, Jackaroo, Waltzing Matilda, Australian Snow, Pimm's Cup No. 1, Tail Feathers, Sauternes Peach Cooler, Raspberry Shrub, Champagne Punch, and Rum and Fruit Punch--ed.)

--------------------------------------------------------
BANDANA OF HAVANA

   From the NYHT, 5 August 1948, pg. 10, col. 6:

   BANDANA OF HAVANA--"You never had it so good."  Any ex-G.I. could tell you that after one sip of "Bandana from Havana," the new banana liquor being introduced into the States.  Here is a 90-proof potent daredevil brew.  You have to be daring to take a second nip, that is if drinking it straight.  The liquor is featured as the drink with a new taste--an old taste to us, exactly like the banana oil our dentist brushes over a filled cavity.
   The drink is pure fruit distillate made from the whole banana, skin and all, made from the little red-skinned fellows known in Cuba as bandanas.  Bandana is used in cocktails mostly, and started on its way to fame in Sloppy Joe's Havana bar.  Now (Col. 7--ed.) every cafe and club in Cuba's capital sings the praise of "Bandana of Havana" cocktails.  The drink moved next to Copacabana in Miami Beach where Banadana mint juleps and Bandana frozen daiquiris get the big hand.  The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans sets up the banana drink and claims it runs neck and neck with its own renowned copyrighted Ramoz (sic) Gin Fizz.

(This item is included solely for research purposes to make my year-end trip to Cuba tax-deductible--ed.)

--------------------------------------------------------
DIJON MUSTARD (continued)

   From the NYHT, 6 August 1948, pg. 11, col. 7:

   MR. MUSTARD AGAIN--That Dijon style mustard made by Frank Company, the tea and spice folks of Cincinnati, and reported here early spring, is showing up now in half the stores of the town.  (...)  The condiment is made from the hearts of the finest Dijon mustard seed with salt and spices added--a recipe Mr. Emil Frank, president of the concern, picked up a few years ago on a trip through the mustard country of France.

--------------------------------------------------------
CAESAR SALAD (continued)

   From the NYHT, 21 August 1948, pg. 9, col. 6:

   No main course, instead the famous Caesar salad of the West Coast, done Nino's way.  Salad price $2; mixed at the table and really two salads.  The green stuff, the heart of romaine is cut into long shreds, with chopped anchovy hidden among the green bed.  Alongside a small china (Col. 7--ed.) bowl and into this the oil and vinegar poured from the glass cruets.  Now four large chunky croutons, which have been fried in olive oil with plenty of garlic, are put to soak in the vinegar and oil mixture, then out to join the greens.  Meanwhile an egg has been dropped into a silver bowl filled with steaming hot water and left to cook one minute, then quickly cracked, its contents emptied into the oil and vinegar, a brisk stirring.  Three teaspoons of grated parmesan are added, more stirring, then over the greens and the big toss.

   From the NYHT, 4 September 1948, pg. 11, col. 6:

   TALK OF CAESAR--If we had a dollar for every time New York restaurateurs have told us that "our place has the one and only Caesar salad"--a high stack of dollars!  Such "to-do" the boys make over the service of broken greens, garlicy croutons, anchovy, parmesan cheese, oil and vinegar and the coddled egg.  Good salads these are--but talk, talk, talk!  "Nina's and Little Club's Caesars are on a par.  Here we do the job better" to quote Mr. Schaffer.  We didn't have a Caesar salad at the Leslie so we aren't taking sides.